To receive a presentation Accent Housing representatives.
Minutes:
The Committee received a presentation from Julie Wittich, Executive Director of Assets and Sustainability, and Holly Sheppard, Contracts Manager, in respect of Accent Housing’s future plans, recent charges, and an update as to the ongoing maintenance issues in relation to its Surrey Heath properties.
Julie Wittich had joined the organisation in the role of Executive Director of Assets & Sustainability, which reflected Accent’s new focus on asset management, and building capacity and undertaking a review of its maintenance service.
Accent had secured a significant grant from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Funds and would be investing in a pilot scheme for the use of part of the funds, including 66 properties within Surrey Heath, to a total of £40,000. Such initiatives were key to Accent’s focus to make its assets more energy efficient and to tackle fuel poverty.
Following Storm Eunice, Accent had prioritised resulting repairs which mostly consisted of roofing, fencing and treework issues. Whilst recruitment and retention issues still continued in relation to the maintenance service, Accent was working with Axis Europe in order to ensure the recruitment of quality operatives and the use of additional sub-contractors in order to increase capacity. During 2021/22 (Year to date), 62.9% of repairs were completed within 15 days against a target of 95%. Furthermore, despite noting that some repairs, where prior specification work needed to be undertaken, could not be completed on the first visit, the targeted rates for first time fixes and the targeted customer satisfaction letter had also fallen below the target standard.
In total, so far this financial year, 838 planned works had been completed, which would soon include new radiators at Cranmore Court, which was due to be completed by the end of February. Customer satisfaction still continued to be lower than wished. This was partly attributable to challenges in respect of material supply which had been caused by the pandemic and Brexit.
Arising from the Committee’s questions and comments the following points were noted:
· The current backlog of outstanding responsive repairs, which had failed to be dealt with outside the targeted 28 day routine period, currently stood at circa 500 within Surrey Heath. Accent regularly reviewed their ‘WIP (Work in Progress)’, of outstanding maintenance repairs, which required a fine balancing act between aiming to meet the 28 day routine period for newer jobs and also tackling the long-outstanding jobs.
· Accent had 100% nominations from the Council in respect of filling its homes; and Accent did not have its own allocations policy. However, there was an opportunity for Accent Housing to perhaps use tools such as its tenancy agreements and its procedures on anti-social behaviour to split apart disruptive combinations of tenants. In the case of new build estates, local lettings plans, which would be created in conjunction with the Council, could enable the creation of more socially sustainable communities and provided a mix between larger and smaller properties and between employed and unemployed tenants.
· There were multiple cases of urgent, severe repairs which hadn’t been completed and had been outstanding for very long periods of more than 6 months. Furthermore, Councillors had heard horror stories from their residents in respect of inadequate repairs and terrible communication. It was felt that the cases reflected, not just the scale of the backlog, but the severity of the cases included.
· Accent Housing was terminating its maintenance contract with Axis Europe. Accent had received assurances that they wanted an amicable, demobilisation of the contract. The new contract with the future maintenance contractor would return to the traditional method of payment, where Accent would only pay for completed jobs.
· Accent and the Council had worked in exemplary partnership in respect of the Afghan Locally Employed Staff (LES) Relocation Scheme.
Accent agreed to arrange a single point of contact to be arranged for Surrey Heath Borough Councillors and Members thanked Julie and Holly for their time and presentation.